2601
International institutions and the EU
Edward Thomas
Nahoru1. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: GOING INTERNATIONAL
Every day the news includes more and more of the actions of international organisations. So-called globalisation is happening between both governments and business.
Look at the following names of international institutions. Can you put their acronyms into the right categories in the table which follows them.
-
World Trade Organisation
-
World Bank
-
United Nations
-
World Health Organisation
-
International Monetary Fund
-
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
-
Nuclear Energy Agency
-
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
-
International Criminal Court
-
International Court of Justice
-
United Nations Educational, Science and Culture Organisation
Correct answers are here
Nahoru2. BUT WHAT DO THEY DO?
In the two boxes below there are names of international institutions and verbs describing what they do. In the sentences which follow there are key verbs and words missing. Can you: a) identify the sentence with the institution and b) add the right verbs and words from the selection?
1) We …………………………… financial and technical …………………………… to developing countries around the world.
2) We …………………………… in cases of serious …………………………… of international concern.
3) Our job is to …………………………… nations to trade more …………………………….
4) We …………………………… international co-operation among 193 …………………………… …………………………… and six Associate Members in the fields of education, science, culture and communication.
5) We …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… providing leadership on global …………………………… …………………………….
6) It is one of our major goals to …………………………… economic …………………………… and high levels of employment.
7) Our organisation …………………………… …………………………… the governments of countries commited to …………………………… and the market economy.
8) Our task is to …………………………… that countries develop safe and peaceful nuclear …………………………… …………………………….
9) Our main task is to …………………………… legal …………………………… between nation states. We work for the UN, actually.
10) We are a permanent body which …………………………… representatives of nation states to meet and …………………………… international agreements.
11) The task we are given is to …………………………… the world's ……………………………, especially looking at so-called global warming.
Correct answers are here
Nahoru3. INTERRELATIONSHIPS
Read these quotes adapted from a speech by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to an Indian audience, and answer the questions which follow it True or False.
300 years ago John Donne said no man is an island.
In the world of 2008, our self-interest and our shared interest are the same. In my view the nature of our greatest possibilities and problems, from the economy to security and the environment, is transnational. The solutions to these problems must also be transnational. And this can only work with international institutions that promote cooperation out of shared interest and predictability and accountability.
***
There is a great need to finance sustainable environmental development in developing countries. So while we will strengthen the World Bank's focus on poverty and on poverty reduction, the World Bank's capacity and its global reach should make it also for the first time the World Bank for the environment. This will ensure that its development programmes provide assistance for both poverty reduction and climate change.
I propose our new International Environmental Transformation Fund which is worth nearly $2 billion as a first step. I propose the creation out of that of a global climate change fund, a multi-billion fund operating within the World Bank's clean energy investment framework. This is to help finance low carbon investment, sustainable forestry programmes and climate resilience development in the poorest countries.
So my vision is a new international framework for providing climate change assistance from the developed to the developing world and a change which can reduce environmental destruction and increase prosperity for all.
***
Now the second major reason for reform of our international rules and institutions is to find new ways of dealing with global financial chaos and find new ways to achieve global prosperity that benefits not just some, but all. Remember that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created for the age of nation states. Now they have to change to be ready for a world where national problems, like the financial problems in the US recently, can quickly become global problems too.
Financial markets and capital flows have…
